Simulation Software for Training in the Graphic Arts
by Raimo Launonen
New educational technologies are important to the graphic arts industry
for many reasons. Vocational schools have difficulty in getting new students
and companies have problems with recruiting new employees to their printing
and finishing departments. The reasons for this are the low status of the
work, the night jobs in newspaper presses and the lack of skilled craftsmen.
Because of the increasing demands for performance and economy in the industry
and to raise the status of the job, new and effective learning methods
are needed in printing. Multi-skilled craftsmen will be needed in the printing
industry in the future, too, because of the wide variety of products and
production machine types.
The PrintSim, an open and flexible simulation and multimedia system
for learning printing processes, special situations, sequences and modern
automation systems was developed in a joint project under the European
Union's COMETT II Programme 1992-1995. A new research and development project
- PostPressSIM - Computer-aided training system for book binding, finishing
and mailing has been launched utilising multimedia and three dimensional
virtual reality factory simulation. The time schedule of this Leonardo
da Vinci programme project is 1995-1998. The PrintSim and PostPressSIM
consists of several software modules and provides a notable more cost-efficient
way to give training and education than by using full-scale production
lines.
VTT Information Technology of the Technical Research Centre of Finland
has employed simulations in research and development since the early 1970s.
The idea of a training simulator for printers came up while VTT was
working with Honeywell Oy Finland (known as Altim Control at the time).
The first complete PrintSim simulator with a built-in remote control system
(Printa) was produced in 1987, and an expert system was used to provide
the dynamics of the offset process.
In new PrintSim and PostPressSIM the research results of the partners
in different parts of Europe, their knowledge of processes and know-how
on teaching and course materials have been integrated into a complete,
modern system for the teaching of printing technology. The partners are
in Sweden, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland.
Computer-aided instruction systems are often designed with a view to
technical considerations and overlooking the cognitive aspects. They mostly
support lower-level information processing and the external control and
regulation of the users' activity. Computer systems should not replace
the users' thinking but provide support at the critical stages of the problem-solving
processes. The training system should activate the user and support the
cognitive processes by writing and visualization.
The PrintSim/PostPressSIM Course Generator (CG) supports active work
by the trainee in different ways. With the text editors of the CG, the
teacher can write instructions for the trainee and following these on-line
instructions the trainee is able to use the PrintSim system interactively
without the teacher's supervision.
Using the CG the student can also write notes and comments and answer
questions written by other students or by the teacher. The course database
of the CG is open for modifications by the user and the different test
forms are editable. The first type of the test forms is a check list and
another type is an option list with radio buttons - all the texts in these
forms are open for changes by pressing the edit button in the form (Figure
2). The trainee has to answer the questions and select the right answers
to the optional choices or sequences. The teacher can also save a special
starting point for the simulator and the press configuration with the course
as the initial state of the simulator.
A very effective way is learning by teaching or by writing an essay
on a selected topic. This kind of creative work is also possible with the
Course Generator, which is also an easy-to-use authoring tool for the hypermedia.
With the CG the user can create links to images and links to the pages
of the multimedia modules.
The PrintSim offset simulator works with various selectable newspaper
and heatset press configurations and the Flexographic simulator works with
a central impression reel-to-reel flexographic machine.
Also the operations with the training simulator before printing are
realistic because, for example the page images for the simulator can be
designed by any desk-top-publishing system of the user.
A densitometer, a magnifying glass for register error inspection and
a loup for dot inspection are special simulated quality control tools for
the trainee (Figure 3).
All the process parameters can be saved for analysis done by any spreadsheet
software like Excel.
The multimedia modules can be used independently of the PrintSim and
PostPressSIM systems but links are easy to create from the Course Generator.
The authoring capabilities of the Course Generator increase the interactive
and creative utilization of the multimedia, because the user can create
own courses with the links to the selected pages of his/her to several
multimedia modules.
The PostPressSIM will introduce innovative multimedia and low-cost three
dimensional factory simulation into the training of complicated after-printing
processes. The educational multimedia modules will be 1. Newspaper mailing
systems, 2. Book binding (Figure 6), 3. Packaging fundamentals and materials.
The virtual reality simulation and multimedia will make the PostPressSIM
system very realistic and easy to use by different groups who need not
to be closely connected with the real machines. With the flexible changes
in the configuration of the simulated factory, the system can be adjusted
to different demands.
The earlier version of the PrintSim simulator has been in educational
use at the Espoo-Vantaa Institute of Technology and AEL since 1989. The
new system with the multimedia modules has been installed and education
has begun in several vocational schools and other educational institutes
in more than 15 countries.
The PrintSim and PostPressSIM systems are demonstrated on the web sites
in the Internet and free demo software is also available. The PrintSim
web site location is http://www.vtt.fi/tte/printsim/ and the PostPressSIM is available
at http://www.vtt.fi/tte/samba/projects/postpres.sim/index.htm.
Please contact:
Raimo Launonen - VTT Information Technology
Tel: +358 9 456 52361
E-mail: raimo.launonen@vtt.fi
